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Barack Obama holds his microphone out to supporters in Cleveland.
AP Photo

“Even if the questions may be similar to what a moderator asks, it’s great for Americans to see an average person ask them,” said Frank Newport, the editor-in-chief of Gallup, which has selected the crowd of uncommitted voters for every general election town hall debate.

At the same time that candidates work to connect with their questioners, they also must appear comfortable sharing the stage with their opponents. That can be a challenging task for nominees, such as McCain, who hope to level sharp criticism at their competitors.

“Strong, harsh attacks either at the questioners or the opponent don’t go off as well,” said Democratic consultant Jenny Backus, a veteran of presidential debate prep. “It’s a lot harder to directly attack your opponent or go negative because there’s an expectation, built in right away, that you have to answer the voter’s question.”

In 2000, during his town hall debate with the younger Bush, then the governor of Texas, Vice President Al Gore attempted to intimidate the Republican nominee by striding slowly toward him as Bush began to answer a question.

Bush briefly turned toward Gore and nodded dismissively, drawing attention to the Democrat’s threatening gesture in a way that made it look awkward and artificial — and helped cement Gore’s reputation, earned in the first debate, as an overbearing, hostile debater.

At the same time, said Ginsberg, candidates should not feel too bound by the town hall structure, especially if they have criticisms that they want to convey to the wider television audience.

“It depends completely on the context,” Ginsberg said. “What you have to be aware of in the format is to talk back to the questioner. At the same time, you’re addressing the broader population that is watching the debate.”

Plus, Ginsberg cautioned, the town hall format often is not as casual as some believe, and it doesn’t always make for truly authentic interactions.

“In the town hall format, it’s still the moderator that selects which of the questions are going to be asked,” he said. “It’s not a random pick of questions.”

David Lanoue, a political scientist at the University of Alabama, said that campaigns have imposed more restrictions on town hall debates over the years, and there is not as much give-and-take as there used to be.

“The 1992 ones were probably the most free-flowing,” he said. “The questions now are more likely to be pre-screened. That makes the whole thing less spontaneous than they used to be.”

The audience at Tuesday’s debate will comprise undecided voters — Americans who have not made up their minds about the election or who have expressed only a slight preference for one candidate or the other — and they will meet with NBC’s Tom Brokaw, the town hall’s moderator, in advance of the event to discuss their questions.

An official with the Commission on Presidential Debates asserted that the audience’s meeting with Brokaw was designed to prompt diversity in the questions, not to screen any out.

“Largely, it is to make sure there aren’t duplicates and a large variety of topics are covered,” said the official, who noted that town hall debates have proved to be some of the most popular in previous election cycles.

Republicans Allege McCain Covered Up His Collaboration with the North Vietnamese While a POW (AlterNet) A 1992 video featuring a Republican senator, Republican congressman and top Capitol Hill staffers who worked on Vietnam prisoner of war and missing in action issues say John McCain collaborated with North Vietnamese while a POW, and then covered up that involvement to the detriment of POW/MIA families seeking access to classified Pentagon records about their own family members. Watch the Video[Flash: vFM1xqqTX_g&hl=en&fs=1]The video raises probing questions about the 2008 Republican presidential nominee's war record, especially after McCain made his captivity a major part of his qualifications for the presidency at the Republican National Convention. In 2004, the GOP focused on Democratic nominee John Kerry's war record to criticize his candidacy. To date, the video has been posted on a handful of blogs but has been ignored by the mainstream media. While it features Republican stalwarts on POW/MIA issues, it also suggests that McCain's war records at the Pentagon and in North Vietnam would reveal potentially very controversial details about the GOP's presidential candidate.

Will Brokaw ask whether the McCain campaign has adopted McCarthyism as its final stretch strategy?

When a uniformed policeman introduced Sarah Palin recently and referred to "Barack HUSSEIN Obama," was that a coded message to the "protectorati" that it is open season on the Democratic candidate?

Did Sarah Palin's remarks about Obama "palling around with a known terrorist" cross the line from campaign rhetoric to hate speech, what could be taken by unstable (or simply evil) elements as an invitation to violence?

There is something very menacing and foreboding about the recent tone of the McCain campaign. Will Brokaw demand an answer from the candidate who promised to run a "respectful" campaign? The candidate who himself was villified and slandered during the 2000 campaign by some of the same people who are now the architects of his current strategy?

And finally, will he ask both candidates whether an abuse of federal investigative powers could be an explanation in part for the mortgage meltdown that led to the broader financial crisis?

Were lenders ORDERED to offer "easy credit" to people "targeted" by government agencies?

Is government "extra-judicial targeting" of American citizens a root cause of the mortgage meltdown that spawned the broader financial crisis?

And is there a disinformation campaign underway to blame the Democrats, instead of ideologues who have hijacked federal agencies as their tool of "social engineering?"

Republicans Allege McCain Covered Up His Collaboration with the North Vietnamese While a POW (AlterNet) A 1992 video featuring a Republican senator, Republican congressman and top Capitol Hill staffers who worked on Vietnam prisoner of war and missing in action issues say John McCain collaborated with North Vietnamese while a POW, and then covered up that involvement to the detriment of POW/MIA families seeking access to classified Pentagon records about their own family members. Watch the Video[Flash: vFM1xqqTX_g&hl=en&fs=1]The video raises probing questions about the 2008 Republican presidential nominee's war record, especially after McCain made his captivity a major part of his qualifications for the presidency at the Republican National Convention. In 2004, the GOP focused on Democratic nominee John Kerry's war record to criticize his candidacy. To date, the video has been posted on a handful of blogs but has been ignored by the mainstream media. While it features Republican stalwarts on POW/MIA issues, it also suggests that McCain's war records at the Pentagon and in North Vietnam would reveal potentially very controversial details about the GOP's presidential candidate.

Barack had better not let him deny responsibility for Wall St. dergulation and why we need better rules. It means a lot to average folks to know how the financial meltdown happened. John is married to financial deregulation blunders.

The outside player who will decide this race is not Ayers, Keating, Rezko, or "witchdoctors"; it's BOB BARR. How in the name of Rockafeller can any REAL CONSERVATIVE vote for the current marxist-republican ticket? It's a given that the liberal tax & spending policies of the democratic party won't turn away their 'base', however, a lot of republicans that are old enough to remember our party is based on small government, fiscal responsibility, and free market capitalism will be voting Libertarian this year. Joseph Stalin would be awed by the these charlatans calling themselves "conservative" while in the span of just one administration they: Grow the federal government over 40%, drive us into servitude of the chinese who hold all of our T-bills with deficits exceeding any known in human history, and now privatizing our financial system more thoroughly than Francois Mitterand & Hugo Chavez did combined! Enough Comrade BUSH. I say we solve the energy crisis by hooking up a giant turbine to William F. Buckley's grave, should be sufficient spinning to power a few large metropolitan areas...

#5 Oct. 7, 2008 - 3:08 PM EST Barack had better not let him deny responsibility for Wall St. dergulation and why we need better rules. It means a lot to average folks to know how the financial meltdown happened. John is married to financial deregulation blunders.

Drone. The dog n' pony show you bought into that the Democrats were shining Heroes on the Hill diminishes what claim to common sense you profess. This isn't partisan politics. This is decisive lobbying to buy favor for suspect business practices, protected by vague language in legislative laws.

The claim that Obama was for re-regulating this two years prior is a load of cocka. Legislation a year prior was blocked and continues to be blocked by the Democratic controlled and Republican minority run Congress. You should ask yourself, ``Who is blocking it and what do they gain by blocking it?''

They all hate America, they all want to destroy America as we have traditionally known it, they all want the United States to retreat in the war, and they all want to make over the United States into a marxist/socialist/collective nation that is much more disposed toward and condusive to their own ideological goals.

...and, yes, oh by the way, they all support, endorse, and/or are well disposed (either friends and mentors and advisors...or very fond of) towards BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA. Democratic candidate for President of the United States.

#6 Oct. 7, 2008 - 3:19 PM EST The outside player who will decide this race is not Ayers, Keating, Rezko, or "witchdoctors"; it's BOB BARR. How in the name of Rockafeller can any REAL CONSERVATIVE vote for the current marxist-republican ticket? It's a given that the liberal tax & spending policies of the democratic party won't turn away their 'base', however, a lot of republicans that are old enough to remember our party is based on small government, fiscal responsibility, and free market capitalism will be voting Libertarian this year. Joseph Stalin would be awed by the these charlatans calling themselves "conservative" while in the span of just one administration they: Grow the federal government over 40%, drive us into servitude of the chinese who hold all of our T-bills with deficits exceeding any known in human history, and now privatizing our financial system more thoroughly than Francois Mitterand & Hugo Chavez did combined! Enough Comrade BUSH. I say we solve the energy crisis by hooking up a giant turbine to William F. Buckley's grave, should be sufficient spinning to power a few large metropolitan areas...

You rant like a Neo-conservative, the same person Buckley detested.

More to the point, Buckley's modern interpretation of Conservative is an absolute affront to the Teddy Roosevelt, Old GOP party. If you have a problem with McCain you'll really hate TR.

McCain had better not let him deny pushing ACORN to push Freddie and Fanny to make all those bad loans. FLAGMAN if you think McCain or the repubs are more guilty than Obama and the Dems then you need to do a little research. They are not telling us who because it's all of them.

Former U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini told PolitickerAZ.com Monday that he thinks Sen. John McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal of the late '80s and early '90s is fair game as an issue in the presidential contest between the senator from Arizona and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

The Obama campaign released an Internet video Monday that revisits the scandal, during which five U.S. senators - including DeConcini and McCain - were investigated by the Senate for interjecting themselves into a federal inquiry into the activities of Charles Keating, the financier and "junk bond king" who was jailed for defrauding investors in connection with the collapse of one of his companies, Lincoln Savings & Loan.

Amano: You don't have to convince me. John got my vote prior to Palin. I already knew his TR approach to Government reform [which scares Neo-cons who don't hesitate to leverage the real Roosvelt who scares Neo-cons the most] was going to come out, after he gained the confidence of the majority in the GOP, due to Obama's smear campaign to defeat Senator Clinton. The real race of interest [in a very diplomatic sense] would have been the Clinton/McCain race. This one is akin to the Cage Match of Modern Professional Wrestling--moke n' mirrors with some blood threats thrown in--resulting in the current state of the race.

It's now time to end the entertainment and go for the jugular. It's time for McCain to eviscerate his opponent.

I'm not sure who will win this debate, and I'll try to keep an open mind about that until the final question is answered. Supposedly, the town hall format favors McCain more than Obama (which is why John McCain wanted to have a whole series of these town hall style debates on a weekly basis throughout this general election). If John McCain is to win this debate, he'll need to be genuine. He will also need to talk about what John McCain can do to lead this country and he'll need to convince voters that he can do that better than Barack Obama can. Spending his precious time attacking his opponent and using his increasingly negative style will not work for him. If John McCain continues using the same old proven LIES he has relied upon, he should be called out by voters in the town hall and be held to a higher standard.

It should be interesting to see how McCain performs given that he has been challenging Obama to this style of debate through much of his campaign. Let's see how McCain tries to duck the questions about the economy now! Please join me in my blog: http://www.propagandawerks.blo...